This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

A Toronto man says he is among seven Egyptian Coptic Christians who were sentenced to death Wednesday after being charged in connection with an anti-Islam film that had sparked riots in parts of the Muslim world.

Nader Fawzy, a father of three living in Scarborough, confirmed Wednesday afternoon that he is among those convicted in absentia.

Fawzy discovered in September that the Egyptian government held him partly responsible for the video lampooning Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

Besides the Coptic Christians, a Florida-based pastor was also sentenced to death, the Associated Press reported.

Egypt’s official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam, and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.

Article Continued Below

Maximum sentences are common in cases tried in absentia in Egypt. Capital punishment decisions are reviewed by the country’s chief religious authority, who must approve or reject the sentence. A final verdict is scheduled on Jan. 29.

Fawzy said fellow Egyptian-born Canadian Jacques Attalla is not among those sentenced to death. Both Fawzy, 52, and Attalla, a Montreal resident who said he is in his late 50s, have insisted they had nothing to do with the video.

“I’m not surprised, I was sure this would happen,” Fawzy said. “It’s a war in Egypt. For me, the problem is the Canadian government told me to shut my mouth. that they were working behind the scenes to help. But the government did nothing.

“The police aren’t even calling me back anymore. Who can guarantee that Egypt will not kidnap me and put me in a coffin and take me back to that country? No one.”

Fawzy and Attalla said the government in Cairo has targeted them because they both are Coptic Christian activists. They say they have spent years fighting to promote the rights of Egypt’s eight million Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 per cent of country’s population and are viewed as enemies of the state by conservative Islamists.

Fawzy said the Egyptian government wants to get rid of him because he has filed lawsuits against the government on behalf of Coptic Christians who have been kidnapped or murdered. His position as president of the Middle East Christian Association also makes him a target, Fawzi said.

Fawzy said Attalla was not convicted because “he is not so dangerous for them.” Attalla couldn’t be reached for comment.

The man behind the film, Mark Basseley Youssef, is also among those convicted. He was sentenced in a California court earlier this month to a year in federal prison for probation violations in an unrelated matter. Youssef, 55, admitted that he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver’s licence under a false name. He was on probation for a bank fraud case.

Florida-based Terry Jones, another of those sentenced, is the pastor of Dove World Outreach, a church of less than 50 members in Gainesville, Fla., not far from the University of Florida. He has said he was contacted by the filmmaker to promote the film, as well as Morris Sadek, a conservative Coptic Christian in the U.S. who posted the video clips on his website, were also among those charged.

In a telephone interview Wednesday with the Associated Press, Jones said the ruling “shows the true face of Islam” — one that he views as intolerant of dissent and opposed to basic freedoms of speech and religion.

“We can speak out here in America,” Jones said. “That freedom means that we criticize government leadership, religion even at times. Islam is not a religion that tolerates any type of criticism.”

The connection of the others sentenced by the court was not immediately clear. They include two who work with Sadek at a radical Coptic group in the U.S. that has called for an independent Coptic state, and a woman who converted to Christianity and is a staunch critic of Islam.

The official news report said that during the trial, the court reviewed a video of some defendants calling for an independent Coptic state in Egypt, and another of Jones burning the Qur’an, Islam’s holy book. The prosecutor asked for the maximum sentence, accusing those charged of seeking to divide Egypt and incite sedition. All of the defendants, except Jones, hold Egyptian nationality, the agency added.

Some Christians and human rights groups worry that prosecutions for insulting religion, which existed to a degree under the secular-leaning regime of Hosni Mubarak, will now increase with the ascent of Islamists to power.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com